Since my children have been diagnosed with food allergies I have only left them with two sitters. One was a trusted teacher from my daughter’s pre school, the other was our nanny. One sitter has moved away and the other is getting ready to start a family of her own, so they are no longer available. We do not have family in the immediate area; and finding childcare that we trust is difficult and stressful. I have to admit that my husband and I have not been out without the kids since last summer – yikes! There are some young teenagers in our area who do babysit. However, I feel that due to the severity of our allergies I would prefer a more mature sitter who could handle an emergency situation.
Now we have a situation where we have been invited to a wedding 4 hours away. My husband really wants to go, but I am having a hard time leaving my children over night. We have made arrangements for his Aunt and Uncle to come stay for the night. I feel like it is a huge responsibility for anyone to agree to take care of feeding our kids with all the allergies we have. I have a plan for organizing all the food and leaving detailed instructions, medical forms etc. I just hope it is enough to ease my mind so I can relax and perhaps have a little fun!
They visit us frequently and know our children very well. Our kids adore them and will have a blast while we are gone. I am very grateful that they have agreed to make the seven hour drive to stay with us. I guess it is hard to leave your kids with anyone else.
How do you all manage leaving your children with someone else?
4 comments:
That is a tough question. The only people who ever watch my kids are my parents; even before we knew about the peanut allergy. Ever since we found out about our child's peanut allergy, my parents have removed all peanuts and peanut butter from their house. They also have read the peanut allergy books we have, so they understand the whole cross-contamination issue. I think they are nearly more careful than I am! That said, we hardly ever do overnights or even day trips. Seems too hard when they are young. (But I did manage to see Garrison Keillor last summer!)
Will you be able to basically make all of their food in advance? Maybe if you could have it all laid out to make it easy for the Aunt & Uncle, it might make you (and them) feel more comfortable. Maybe arrange everything, so only the foods you have selected are cooked and served? Just don't know what the Aunt & Uncle would eat...would they be willing to eat the meals you prepare?
I have started my preparations. I will prepare as much food as I can ahead of time and leave explicit instructions for snacks and other things. I will share as I get it all together.
This is a great question. My family is moving and will be looking for new baby sitters--I'm talking just so we can go out to dinner or something. I'm already trying to figure out how to properly "screen" people as being food-allergy aware.
In general, we have my sister sit overnight with the kids and it's gone very well. She's even taken them out to eat (at restaurants pre-approved by us). She accomodates us by not having peanut products in her mome, which helps.
The tricky part comes in when family members keep the allergenic foods around. Then I'm not as secure--we just go over everything as much as possible and give a list of pre-approved foods. Also, everyone has to know about cross-contamination risks.
I think most people can learn how to handle this--but you do have to give them a lot of info.
I actually put a post on Craig's List for a PT babysitter. Just someone to watch the kids while I do short errands, doctors appts etc. I have had 3 replies from college students and local teachers. I have not had a chance to interview them yet. I am optimistic - believe it or not I found our nanny on Craig's List and she was great!
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